Suspicious Strawberries

Carolyn Wright, Rachel Donahue, Ranfei Xu, Zara Waheed

November 3rd, 2021

Research Question:

  • How has toxic chemical usage changed over time and does this vary across different states?

Overall toxin instances

Distribution of Carcinogens

Especially in California

  • California had 11 main Carcinogenic chemicals detected in strawberry yields.
  • They fall into the known, possible and probable categories.
  • The figure below shows a scaled plot of the distribution of Carcinogens detected in strawberries in California over time.

Total Carcinogens CA

Known carcinogenic chemicals

Probable carcinogenic chemicals

Possible carcinogenic chemicals

Conclusions

Trends on the known toxins

Captan, Carbaryl and Iprodione

Related policy

California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHNA) – Proposition 65

Additional questions

Why Captan is still used as widely as it is if it is toxic?